Will and I had a meeting with his guidance counselor last week. We talked about what Will wants for his future, what we were doing about it, and what else we could do about it. As you may recall, Will wants to be a video game designer. So, I told the counselor that, as far as electives were concerned, we were focusing on art and computer classes.

She gave us some great news! Next year, Will can take graphic design and game design (a new class!) for the full year! I found that very exciting and Will was psyched, too. But, while we were still talking along this vein, Will dropped a bomb on me.

“I also need to learn to speak Japanese, because I’ll need to speak Japanese when I work for Nintendo Tokyo.”

I sat in stunned silence. We’ve talked before about how Nintendo is a Japanese company. We’ve talked about how, to work for Nintendo, he’d have to learn Japanese and he’d have to move across the world. Never once did he say, “I want to do that!”

Now, it’s not that I don’t want to encourage my son to pursue his dreams. I do that every chance I get! Nor is it that I think, just because I’m his mother, that I have a right to dictate what those dreams should and should not be. I honestly don’t.

But, honestly, I am a mom!!! You don’t suddenly drop this kind of bomb on me when I’m in a meeting with someone we’ve just met. Give me time to process the idea! I mean, it’s Japan!!!

Now, to be fair, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Japan…except that it’s almost the exact opposite of us on a globe. A small thing, really, until it’s to scale. Of all the reasons I can think of why this is a bad idea, mostly it comes down to this: It’s too far away for me!!!

I am getting used to the idea. I’ve done a good job resisting the temptation to talk him out of it. I haven’t even brought it up (to him), because I know I would try to talk him out of it. But it’s a struggle. New York City? Fine. L.A.? Fine. But Tokyo? I’m not ready for that!